Islamic State: PM Tony Abbott says Government to decide in coming days on order to join Iraq air strikes

Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the Government will decide in the coming days whether to give the order to join US-led air strikes on Islamic State targets in Iraq.

The US and France have both launched air strikes against IS targets as part of a campaign to "degrade and destroy" the radical Sunni militant group, which has seized large parts of both Iraq and Syria.

Australia has sent eight F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter jets and 200 special forces troops to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for joining the attack on IS targets in Iraq.

"We sent them there in readiness to deploy them, but obviously it's important to do so as part of a coalition.

"That coalition clearly is assembling and the Government will be making further decisions in coming days."

Mr Abbott, who met with Iraq's new prime minister Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of United Nations talks in New York, said it was important to have widespread support for the operation.

"It's clear that more and more countries are committing to some form of military action to support the Iraqi government and to disrupt and degrade the ISIL movement," he said.

"The Dutch government has just agreed to commit up to eight of their F-16s and we saw five Middle Eastern countries join the United States in their strikes on ISIL targets in Syria just the other day."

Australia must 'play part in fight against death cult'

Mr Abbott said it was in Australia's national interest that "we play our part in the fight against the murderous death cult".

"This isn't just something that's happening in the Middle East. It's something that's reaching out to Australia," he said.

"As you know there are at least 60 (Australians) that are currently fighting with IS and other terrorist groups, there's at least 100 Australians supporting them.

"There's well over 60 that have had their passports cancelled lest they go abroad to join IS, and unfortunately this toxicity in the Middle East is reaching out to our country and it's doing bad things at home.

"That's why it's important that this be done as part of our national security effort."

Mr Abbott did not rule out taking the fight to the Syrian-Turkish border, where tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing the IS advance, but he said the Government was focused on combat operations in Iraq.

"Morally there's little difference between IS, this death cult on one side of the border to the other because it's a border that IS doesn't recognise," he said.

"But legally the Australian Government must be conscious of these things because we are a law-abiding country, legally there's a world of difference between operating inside Iraq in support and at the request of the Iraqi government and operating in Syria which is largely ungoverned space with a regime that Australia doesn't actually recognise."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it was increasingly unlikely that Australia would be involved in air strikes in Syria, given the growing size of the international coalition willing to launch attacks on Islamic State militants.

"As more countries commit, as we see the Arab state counties are prepared to undertake air strikes in Syria, then there's less of a need for Australia," Ms Bishop said.

"So I'm hoping that that coalition holds - I have every expectation that it will."

Yesterday Mr Abbott told the UN Security Council Australia's response to Islamic State would be "utterly unflinching".